I saw the BBC version of Hogfather and I loved it and it’s a large part of the reason I decided to actually read (listen to) the Discworld series. I love Susan, she’s an excellent character. Half Mary Poppins, half Death. I loved this book.

32. Jingo – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer

In general, I like the books about the watch, but this one really didn’t do it for me. The book is basically satirizing war and nationalism and that sort of behavior, but I just didn’t find it that compelling for whatever reason.

33. Last Continent – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer

This book is about a continent that is not Australia. I didn’t much care for this one either. It’s a Rincewind book. The best part was the drag queens.

34. Carpe Jugulum – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer

Yay! A witches book. This one had vampires and was pretty fun to read in light of all the modernization of vampires lately. Because these are old world vampires in the old world trying to evolve beyond being subject to people’s superstitions. I also really like all the witches.

35. Dealing with Dragons – Patricia C. Wrede

This is a re-read, haven’t read this book in ages, but I loved this series as a younger person. I can’t recommend them strongly enough. I imagine the rest of the books will appear throughout the year, if I can find them at the library. I like what she does with the series, each of the four books has a different main character, but they interact closely with the characters you already know and love. Third Person Limited FTW!

It is the fate of all banisters worth sliding down that there is something nasty waiting at the far end. — Terry Pratchett

We are coming to the end of Week 24/52 and I’ve read 30/50. I suspect it will be even slower from now on, I may start posting individually when I finish books so I don’t forget.

26. Soul Music – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer
I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. I quite like the main character, Susan the granddaughter of Death, who eventually becomes a sort of badass Mary Poppins. I liked her character, but the rest of the book was just sort of OK. I’ve found I don’t actually like the Death centered books that much. Anyway, I saw the Hogfather BBC movie and I really enjoyed Susan et al there, so I’m looking forward to getting to it.

27. Interesting Times – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer
The return of Rincewind, haven’t heard from him in a while. I didn’t much care for this book, it wasn’t terrible or anything, it just wasn’t terribly compelling.

28. Maskerade – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer
I think how much you like this book is dependent on your relationship with the Phantom of the Opera, which is to say if you are both familiar and mildly contemptuous of it, while retaining a special place in your heart for it, then you’ll very much enjoy this book. I think this is a book you could very easily read independently of the series without losing anything. Have some quotes that will explain this to you.

After you’d known Christine for any length of time, you found yourself fighting a desire to look into her ear to see if you could spot daylight coming the other way.

“Well, basically there are two sorts of opera. There’s your heavy opera, where basically people sing foreign and it goes like “Oh oh oh, I am dyin’, oh, I am dyin’, oh, oh, oh, that’s what I’m doin'”, and there’s your light opera, where they sing in foreign and it basically goes “Beer! Beer! Beer! Beer! I like to drink lots of beer!”, although sometimes they drink champagne instead. That’s basically all of opera, reely.”

29. Asimov’s Guide to the Old Testament – Isaac Asimov
Oh my God I finally finished this. It took ages. It’s nearly 700 pages of historical analysis of the Old Testament. It’s very well written, it’s just that some parts of the Old Testament (aka the early bits) are way more interesting than the other parts (the prophets). I really enjoyed what I learned, but after I got through the fun stories it was a bit more difficult. Still, I enjoyed reading the explanations of all the prophecies and how they were related to the history of the local civilizations.

Since there are some stories attached, I’ve now got a decent timeline in my head of Syria, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, and anything else ending with ia that I’m forgetting. I guess I’m one of them atheists that likes to be able to know holy texts better’n the religious and since I live where the Judeo-Christians dominate, the Bible is what I like to be able to tear apart.

Also, as a complete political junkie, understanding the very earthly political motivations driving a lot of what is said in the book is very enlightening. I recommend this for anyone looking to be literate in the historical study of the Bible, but who doesn’t like boring people. Because, even when the material is dry, Asimov has an enthusiasm and sense of humor that makes it readable. And, at 700 pages, it really is exhaustive. Plus, lots of maps.

30. Feet of Clay – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer
I know this list is mostly Terry Pratchett, but the Asimov book took me some weeks and I wouldn’t allow myself any other readable books til I got through it. This is the best one of the bunch, I think. I really really like the guards stories, and if you’re into Dirty Harry, crime solving, hijinks, or really like Severus Snape, I would recommend the guard books in the Discworld series.

21. Godless – Dan Barker
I thought his personal journey from being an Evangelical preacher to being an atheist was really interesting and compelling, but the second half of the book focused on arguments for why he was atheist that were very familiar to me. I think this would be a great book to give to someone who was interested and knew nothing about atheism, particularly because Barker is very sensitive to the Christian mindset.

22. Men at Arms – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer
I like the Guards a fair amount, so I enjoyed this story. Not as much as the witch stories, but I love Carrot and Vimes and the Patrician, and they all featured pretty heavily. I was less interested in the parts that were about the impact of a gun on the society. I also love Detritus the Troll. And how British people say Troll.

23. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice – Laurie R. King
I had listened the BBC Radio adaptation of this and was really interested in reading the whole book. It’s about a girl who becomes Sherlock Holmes apprentice, but it’s a fairly adult sort of story. I’ve only ever read one or two of the Holmes tales, so I don’t know how faithful it is, but I enjoyed it enough to finish in a night and start the next one the next day.

24. A Monstrous Regiment of Women – Laurie R. King
I think the first one is a little more compelling than this tale was, but then I’m not really interested in Christian Feminist movements and find them weird. The developing relationship between Russell and Holmes was handled very deftly and quite enjoyable.

25. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ – Philip Pullman
This book was a very quick read and I can’t say I honestly recommend it. Maybe it’d be more interesting to people who aren’t familiar with any biblical scholarship. The premise being that Jesus and Christ were twins, Jesus being the radical and Christ being the realist. It’s no Dark Materials.

It’s week 22, so I’m ahead of the game. So maybe I’ll actually finish the Asimov book. Or I’ll do what I did yesterday, and buy another 12 books because now I’m interested in Sherlock Holmes…

This is a children’s book and a great deal shorter than most of the other books on my reading list. I say it makes up for those Asimov books which are long and dry. Of course, I haven’t finished those yet. This is sort of similar to Ella Enchanted. It’s about the youngest princess in the family and her fairy godmother grants her the gift of being ordinary, and so she’s not as pretty, or blond, or dainty as the other princesses and she runs away and has adventures and falls in love with an ordinary king. Love it 🙂

17. Snow White, Blood Red – Edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

This is a collection of stories that are re-tellings of fairy tales, but fairly adult. I read them originally when I was pretty young, 14ish, and it was the first thing I read that was at all naughty and grown-up. There is a retelling of Rapunzel in here that had morphed and grown into something totally different in my mind, it was interesting to go back and read it over a decade later. My mind version is better, by the way.

18. Witches Abroad – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer

One of my favorites, I love the witches. This is a send up of all fairy tales sort of mashed into one, plus some voodoo and New Orleans style magic. A very fun <del>read</del> <i>listen</i>.

19. Small Gods – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer

This one was OK. I found myself having to make a very concerted effort to pay attention. It’s not that I didn’t like the ideas, and parts of it were quite good. This is set many, many years before the main events of the discworld series, and in that sense it was interesting. But it’s basically a buddy movie of a guy and his pet God.

20. Lords and Ladies – Terry Pratchett read by Nigel Planer

Back to the witches yay! This may be my favorite book so far. The story is more fully realized and well-plotted than the others. The characters are just as well done as before, but the story is strictly fantasy, there’s no technological invention driving it. It’s spoofs Midsummer Night’s Dream a bit, and it’s basically a reflection on youth, age, and lives not lived. But… it’s Terry Pratchett, which is to say it’s done so with a lot of jokes, and people who can’t be having with that sort of nonsense.

OK, so this is now caught up to where I am. It’s week 21, and I am currently reading books 21, 22 and 23, so I’m in a good place. Since there are 52 weeks in a year, there’s basically 2 weeks of buffer built in, and I’d like to get to the place where I’m 2 weeks ahead anyway, because it’s going to take me a long time to get through both those Asimov books. They’re not just long, they’re dry!

Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life. — Terry Pratchett

11. Tricks of the Mind – Derren Brown

Amazing book. Derren Brown, and you really should look into him if you’re unfamiliar, is sort of the British version of Penn & Teller. I say sort of because his tricks are less illusions and more mentalist, but he is super skeptical and very honest about the fact that it’s all tricks. He’s also the best cold reader I’ve ever seen. And I hate that stuff when it’s played for serious, but he plays it as memory tricks and intuitivity and he’s kind of a dick.

12. Guards! Guards! – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer

I really liked this one, I think if you were just starting the series this would be one you could start with. It stands alone quite well. It delves into a lot of characters that I quite love the Librarian, who is an ape, Vimes, who is Dirty Harry basically, Sybil Ramkin, who is one of those crazy, not terribly attractive, flawed and delightful women characters, and the Patrician, who is evil in an efficient and good sort of way. The Patrician was originally intended to be played by Alan Rickman, in Mr. Pratchett’s mind, but was ultimately played by Jeremy Irons. We find that this suits our Gruber sensibilities.

13. Faust Eric – Terry Pratchett, read by Tony Robinson

Didn’t really care for this one.

14. Moving Pictures – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer

This is a really good one if you’re into movies. A lot of what the Discworld books do is introduce modern technology into a magical world, and that technology is based on magical innovation rather than technical innovation. In this one, someone discovers how to magically record moving images, and the rise of Hollywood happens in a few weeks, culminating in the epic film about the civil war “Blown Away”. I enjoy all the references to things that are familiar with slightly bizarre names. Banged Grains instead of Popcorn, Clicks instead of Flicks. Also stand alone, if you’re a movie person looking to get into the Discworld series, start here.

15. Reaper Man – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer

Not my favorite. I like Death a lot, but there was something less than compelling about his story.

I’ve got an interest in mental health, and this book is about something I knew very little about, porn addictions. Having read the book I’m pretty sure “porn addiction” is code for anti-social and in need of some good therapy that has nothing to do with access to porn. I dunno, I don’t buy that having access to porn is a problem. And the book implies that masturbation is unhealthy, especially if you have a partner, which I really don’t believe.

7. Mort – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer

This one was OK, but not my favorite.

8. Sourcery – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer

Same.

9. Wyrd Sisters – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer

Much better than the first time I tried to read it. I love the witches. Magrat, Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax are three wonderfully realized women. Terry Pratchett has a real genius with making three dimensional female characters.

Maybe you’re familiar with this one? You basically challenge yourself to read 50 books in one calendar year. I’ve decided to retroactively take on this challenge for 2010 because I’m fairly close to where you need to be in the year in terms of books read.

I have finished 18 books (it’s week 20 of the year) and gotten at least halfway through 4 more, and started 2 more than that. So, if I finished all of that in the next 2 weeks (possible) I’d be at 24 and ahead of the game! Plus, it means I get to keep lists, which I like to do. And I’ve got an absurd number of books waiting to be read (Over 50).

If I got through all the Terry Pratchett audiobooks, which I started in February and have gotten through 12, I’d be at 36 for the year. Frustrating that I have so many books on my hand and not the time to read them! I think I’ll do updates with every five books and a brief review or thoughts, approximately in order of when I finished them.

I ordered this while following the Prop 8 trial because, basically, no one is a snarky about fundamentalists as H.L. Mencken and the parallels between Prop 8 and teaching creationism in school seemed obvious to me. It was both uplifting and wholly depressing. H.L. Mencken reads to me a lot like Hunter S. Thompson.

PDF is not the best delivery mechanism for a book when you don’t have an e-reader. I mean, I’m not sure if it’s the best if you do have an e-reader, but I’m guessing it’s better. Anyway, I was heavy into transcripts because I was reading the daily transcripts of Prop 8.

Long ago I was given Wyrd Sisters from this series by my friend Nicol. I couldn’t get through it for any number of reasons (cramped typeface, world I was unfamiliar with). After I saw a couple of the BBC adaptations of Terry Pratchett stories and therefore had a Rincewind in my head that was solid, I decided to listen to the audiobooks, especially since Good Omens is a fantastic book. Colour of Magic was great.

Third in the Discworld series and by far my favorite of them all. This introduces Granny Weatherwax, who is my favorite Pratchett character, followed closely by Death. Pratchett’s greatest skill as a writer, in my opinion, is that none of his characters are particularly attractive and they all have terrible flaws, but you like them and they never get over their flaws. People don’t become pretty, or overcome their inherent selfishness or cowardice, they’re just regular people.